For example, in sample processing to inspect or analyze a sample such as blood or blood serum, a sample container is held and carried on a holder in an erect state, and various processes are conducted by various detectors arranged along a carrying path (Jpn Pat KOKAI Publication No. 2005-300357). In such sample processing, as a pre-process, sample containers are manually erected and inserted into a rack, and held and transferred one by one to the holder from the rack by a transfer device.
This requires a process of manually erecting a large number of sample containers and inserting the sample containers into the rack, and holding and transferring the sample containers one by one to the holder from the rack by the transfer device, which takes time and labor. Thus, improvement of processing efficiency is demanded.